Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Archaic The cross on which Jesus was crucified.
- noun A crucifix, especially one surmounting the rood screen or rood beam of a medieval church.
- noun Chiefly British A measure of length that varies from 5 1/2 to 8 yards (5.0 to 7.3 meters).
- noun A measure of land equal to 1/4 acre, or 40 square rods (0.10 hectare).
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A rod. See
rod , 1. - noun A cross or crucifix; especially, a large crucifix placed at the entrance to the choir in medieval churches, often supported on the rood-beam or rood-screen.
- noun A name of various measures.
- noun A square pole, or 30¼ square yards, used in estimating masons' work; also, locally, a measure of 36, 42¼, 44, 49, or 64 square yards.
- noun A cubic measure for masons' work of 64, 72, etc., cubic yards.
- noun Same as
Holy-cross day (which see, underday ).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A representation in sculpture or in painting of the cross with Christ hanging on it.
- noun Prov. Eng. A measure of five and a half yards in length; a rod; a perch; a pole.
- noun The fourth part of an acre, or forty square rods.
- noun by the cross; -- a phrase formerly used in swearing.
- noun (Arch.) a beam across the chancel of a church, supporting the rood.
- noun (Arch.) a loft or gallery, in a church, on which the rood and its appendages were set up to view.
- noun (Arch.) a screen, between the choir and the body of the church, over which the rood was placed.
- noun (Arch.) a tower at the intersection of the nave and transept of a church; -- when crowned with a spire it was called also
rood steeple . - noun [Obs.] the cross.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun archaic A
crucifix ,cross . - noun A measure of land area, equal to a quarter of an
acre .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun representation of the cross on which Jesus died
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It was a lofty stone wall, against which stood the altar of the holy cross, or rood-altar, as it was more commonly called, and upon it was a gallery called the rood-loft, from its containing the great rood and its attendant images.
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In smaller churches, with no separate pulpitum, but only a rood-screen with a central doorway, there was usually an altar on either side of the door, but it is doubtful whether these can strictly be termed rood-altars.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock 1840-1916 1913
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The daily parish Mass said at the altar on or under the rood-screen, was called the rood Mass, though occasionally this term is used to signify merely the Mass of one or other of the feasts of the Holy Cross.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock 1840-1916 1913
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In England, also, the rood frequently stood not on or near the screen and loft, but on a separate transverse beam called the rood-beam, which was similarly carved and gilded.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock 1840-1916 1913
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A rood is a piece of land one rod wide and forty rods long, that is, the fourth of an acre.
An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England Edward Potts Cheyney 1904
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` ` We shall see that, '' said Front-de-Buf; ` ` for by the blessed rood, which is the abomination of thy accursed tribe, thou shalt feel the extremities of fire and steel!
Ivanhoe 1892
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A special altar, called the rood-altar, used to stand under the screen.
English Villages 1892
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The red men fought for the Paradise -- fought till it was drenched with blood, but no tribe, without mortal challenge from another straightway, could ever call a rood its own.
The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come John Fox 1891
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By the rood was a common oath; so by the holy rood, as in Shakespeare, Rich.
The Lady of the Lake 1810
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By the rood was a common oath; so by the holy rood, as in Shakespeare, Rich.
The Lady of the Lake Walter Scott 1801
oroboros commented on the word rood
Door in reverse.
November 3, 2007
yarb commented on the word rood
The vast white headless phantom floats further and further from the ship, and every rod that it so floats, what seem square roods of sharks and cubic roods of fowls, augment the murderous din.
- Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 69
July 26, 2008